John was woken early to a faint knocking on the door. He groaned and shifted around, trying to untangle his limbs from the many covers that twisted around him. He could hear Karkat moving above him, and Sollux next to him.

"I swear to god if it's Pyrope again... " Sollux mumbled.

"I told you I haven't seen her in weeks!" Karkat retaliated.

"Yeah, sure."

"Whatever, I'll get it."

John looked up to see Karkat's socked foot dangling in front of his face as he slowly slid out of bed and onto the ground. He padded over to the door and out of John's field of vision. John closed his eyes again, all too eager to sleep for a few more hours. He heard the creak of the door opening, then a moment of silence.

"Oh my god."

John clambered out of bed and turned to face the doorway, then immediately sprinted over. Kanaya was laying in the doorway, clothes ripped, eyes fluttering and skin charred. Karkat and John each grabbed one of her shoulders and half carried, half dragged her over to the couch. The floor shuddered slightly as Sollux jumped down to join them.

If John had thought the burns Sollux and Karkat had gotten looked painful, they were nothing compared to the current state of Kanaya's skin. Her face, neck and arms were raw and bleeding, making her appear completely green. Her mouth was open, lips shriveled from lack of moisture. There was a tear running down the middle of her shirt, and on her pant legs, and her clothes were streaked with dirt, it looked like she had dragged herself along the ground all the way down the dirt tunnel.

"How the hell did you escape?" Karkat asked, sounding thoroughly freaked out. Kanaya groaned, not answering.

Sollux appeared at her elbow with a glass full of water, gently lifting her head and tipping it into her mouth. She drank greedily, water spilling out the side of her mouth and onto the sofa. When the cup was finished she lay back, panting slightly.

"She...didn't kill me," Kanaya said between breaths. "Left me outside...after she stabbed...I was out all day before I woke up."

"Well I don't know why she did that but I'm glad she did," Sollux said, looking concerned. Kanaya didn't answer, her eyes had closed.

"We should get something for her skin..." Karkat said, then left into the second room. Sollux was still staring down at Kanaya, but John could tell he wasn't really looking at her anymore.

"I don't know if this is good news or bad news," he finally said.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Well, this could be her saying that she only had it out for Tavros, and that she doesn't care about us, you know? But it could also just mean that she has a thing for Kanaya for some reason."

Karkat returned with several rags doused in cold water, which he draped awkwardly over her forehead and arms, then sank into the second couch, putting his hands to his forehead.

"The only reason," he said to no one in particular, "I liked living in a goddamn hole in the ground is so I could avoid all of this shit! Like, it's hard enough just to get food and crap, we don't need a fucking hitman on our tail." Sollux crossed the room and flopped next to him.

"Right now all we can do is think about this," he said. "Right now let's assume that Mindfang is on our ass. So we have to stop her."

"You can't. There's no fucking way we can stop her."

"We can't. But there's one person who can."

Karkat lowered his hands. "She wouldn't do it. You know the history between the two of them."

"You don't know that. She would do it for you."

Karkat glared at him. "I told you, we're not a thing anymore."

"Yeah with our fucking lives at stake I think it wouldn't hurt to ask."

"Fine. You watch Kanaya." Karkat stood up and went into the other room, coming out a minute later in dark jeans and a black sweatshirt. John motioned to follow him, but Karkat shook his head.

"Sorry kid, but you can't come today. I'm going way far in." And with that he flicked the hood up, nothing visible but a yellow glow of his eyes, then opened the door and disappeared down the tunnel.

"Where's he going?" He asked Sollux.

"Trying to get ahold of an old friend of his, Redglare, but she's pretty hard to find."

John nodded and then yawned, realizing how tired he was. Sollux had spaced out again, staring straight ahead, so John slunk back over to his bed and crawled inside. His last thought before falling asleep again was that he had already begun to think of the hole in the wall with blankets as his own bed.

After what seemed like two minutes, but was actually a little over an hour, John was awoken yet again by Sollux shaking his shoulder. John blinked his eyes open to the blurry view of Sollux already dressed.

"Hey, Egbert I have to leave for a little bit. Kanaya's still sleeping so just keep an eye on her until she wakes up, ok? I should be back in an hour or so." John nodded and rubbed his eyes, but by the time he removed his hands, Sollux had left.

John got up and got dressed, pulling on what he assumed were some of Sollux's clothes left out for him. He really needed to get new clothes, but doubted that there were that many vendors left. Maybe Kanaya could make something for him, her house looked like she always was making stuff.

There was a knock on the door. Was Karkat back already? No, he wouldn't knock. For a moment John froze, fearing that it was Mindfang at the door, but dismissed that. What kind of murderer knocked? And besides, she stole the key off Tavros' body. That thought didn't make him feel entirely better, but it did make him go and answer the door.

He opened it a crack to see a female troll standing there.

"Hey," She said. "I'm a friend of Karkat's, he told me to come here." John looked at her. She was taller than him, with long and rather messy hair. Her horns were much taller than Karkat's or Sollux's, one was identical to Kanaya's, and the other shaped a bit like a claw. She was dressed casually, a blue coat thrown over a black shirt and jeans.

"Are you Redglare?" He asked. He couldn't see any red on her besides her shoes, but maybe the name referenced something else. She smiled, showing glistening, razor sharp teeth. Looking closer, John could see that something was off about her left eye, she seemed to have more than one pupil.

"Yep," she answered.

"Where's Karkat?"

"He had to see someone, he told me to come ahead."

"Oh, okay. Why don't you come in and wait?" He opened the door, gesturing her inside and suddenly feeling more at ease. Sollux had said that Mindfang wouldn't hurt them as long as Redglare was around.